Cruxshadows

The Crüxshadows

Press Release & Info 2008-09 Cruxshadows can be reached via The Sepiatone Booking Agency/Two BC Music Publishing at 718-853-5831 or [email protected]. or directly via email at [email protected]. See our online sites at www.cruxshadows.com, www.cruxshadows.de, & www.myspace.com/cruxshadows. Cruxshadows

The Crüxshadows

Biography One of the most popular Darkwave bands internationally, the Crüxshadows started in the early 1990's in a little town in North Florida. Over the last 16 years their success among the gothic, ebm, new wave, & dark electronic genres has earned them a near legendary underground status. The band’s dark electronic rock and introspective lyrics quickly earned them a fan base beyond the United States, particularly in Europe. With a constant and ambitious release schedule, and a dizzying live performance itinerary, they have turned conventional wisdom on it's ear & maintained their position among the scenes elite from each year to the next. They have played many hundreds of shows worldwide including concerts in Norway, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland, France, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Canada, Spain, The United States, The People’s Republic of China, and many, many more. They were one of the first Western acts to play in Romania & Serbia following the cold war. During 2006 and 2007 they undertook a year long tour that covered North America, Europe, and even

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parts of Asia. The Crüxshadows were the first band from the Gothic genre to receive permission to play in China, and in 2007 they became one of only a handful of western alternative bands to perform at the Greenpeace Midi Open-air Festival in Beijing, China. In recent years they have had several alternative chart toppers in Western Europe and their festival shows have drawn audiences in excess of 20,000 people to the front of the stage during their performance. In 2005, The Crüxshadows headlined the free 4-day Bochem Total festival in Germany, which drew a total attendance of just under one million people.

In the United States, the band has had two Billboard #1 hits; the late 2006 release of Sophia (#1 Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart, #7 Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart), and more recently in September 2007 with Birthday (#1 Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart, #2 Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart). Both songs appear on the 2007 album release Dreamcypher.

A blend of new wave, gothic, pop, rock, and electronica, the band's unique and often catchy songs have become staples of the darkwave, ebm, and electro- alternative scene. Notable tracks from The Crüxshadows include Leave Me Alone (the all time highest charting "goth" song on the now defunkt mp3.com), Eurydice (it spent over 2 years in the top 10 New Wave charts of mp3.com), Deception (originally part of the Vampire the Masquerade - Music from the Succubus Club disc, it has been recorded in both English and German), Winterborn (this Sacrifice) (#2 DAC*), Dragonfly (#2 DAC), Tears (#2 DAC), Helen, Return, Resist/r, Foreverlast (#4 DAC), Monsters (#2 DAC), & of course the legendary Marilyn, My Bitterness (#2 DAC).

The band's uniqueness transcends the realm of dance or club music. The rich and romantic flavor of the electric violin, mixed with crunchy and sometimes biting guitar lines, gives the Crüxshadows a wide berth of musical possibilities. This is juxtaposed with the cold digital world of electronic textures and synthesis associated often with synth-pop and EBM. Add the moody musings of front man, composer, founder, and lead singer Rogue, and you have a guarantee that this band is anything but typical. Songs by The Crüxshadows are immediately recognizable. Lyrically, they draw heavily from ancient mythology, and tend to

CXS Press Packet 2 Cruxshadows focus on themes of responsibility, loyalty, passion and faith. The band’s motto is “Live, love, be, believe,” and it serves as a reminder that while The Crüxshadows may write catchy songs, the band has depth that extends beyond the dance floor.

That depth has earned the band many fans among the literary crowd, including the bestselling authors Caitlin Kiernan, John Ringo, and New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman. The Crüxshadows wrote a song based on Gaiman’s movie, Mirror Mask called Wake the White Queen, which Gaiman included on his CD, Where’s Neil When You Need Him?

With over 18 CDs, a DVD, and more compilation appearances than one can reasonably count, The Crüxshadows have made themselves synonymous with a new breed of electro-goth music. Their energy and intensity on stage led them to be called "the best live band in Europe today" by the host of Hamburg's popular Crazy Clip Show, and their performances have been aired regularly on German national television. In the USA, Songs by The Cruxshadows have appeared on ABC World News, National Geographic Television, The Style Channel, MTV, VH1, LOGO, & Discovery; as well as many others throughout Europe and Asia.

If you have an opportunity to see them live, don't pass it up. Known for their theatrical, yet sincere, impassioned, and exciting performances, The Crüxshadows are indeed one of a kind. The Crüxshadows have performed with a broad range of bands including some notables like The Cure, Bjork, Ladytron, Apoptygma Berzerk, Placebo, Sisters of Mercy, Skinny Puppy, VNV Nation, Mesh, Bad Religion, Clan of Xymox, Tool. The Jesus & Mary Chain, 69 Eyes, Covenant, Project Pitchfork, and many, many more.

New Release.

In Summer 2008, the Crüxshadows released the new single Immortal. The Immortal Tour kicked off in July of 2008 in Germany and featured shows throughout Europe and the United Kingdom. The US portion of the tour is scheduled for Fall, and other worldwide dates are being scheduled for 2009.

Members of the band

The band is based around lead singer, songwriter, lyricist, & frontman

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Rogue. Over the years CXS has seen a significant number of musicians and performers involved, but the band remains consistent and true to form year in and year out. Rogue has chosen the best people available to work with over the years. The current lineup is powerful, dynamic, and energetic, and continues to deliver the kind of performance that fans expect from the band. In late 2007, Rogue and singer/dancer Jessica Lackey were married.

Current band members are: Rogue (vocals, songwriting, programming, lyrics, keyboards, some violin, front man), Valerie Gentile (guitar player) Pyromantic (AKA Jen Jawidzik- keyboarder), Johanna Moresco (violin), David Wood (violin), Jessica Lackey (singer/dancer), & Sarah Kilgore (singer/ dancer).

Other Former members & dancers include: Rachel McDonnell (violin and some keyboards), Chris Brantley (former Keyboards), George Bikos (former guitar player), Stacey Campbell (former guitar player), Sean Flanagan (former keyboard player), Tim Curry (former guitar player), Trevor Brown (former keyboard player), Kevin Page (former guitar player), Sarah Poulos (former Dancer), Rachel Ulrich (former dancer), Beth Allen (former dancer), Holly McCall (former dancer), Roo Smith (former dancer), & Liz Repass (former dancer).

The Cruxshadows are published and Registered through BMI and TWO BC MUSIC (BMI).

Press Release- For immediate release sept 17th, 2007. The Crüxshadows, or “the most famous band you’ve never heard of”, has done it again. Their most recent single- Birthday has debuted at the number two chart position on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Charts and Number One on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart- making it the best selling dance single in America and the second best selling single in all music in its release week. Such was the enthusiasm by the bands legion of loyal fans, that the previous single Sophia, which reached the number one spot on the Dance Charts in 2006 and stayed in the charts for 18 weeks, re-entered the charts at number three on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Charts the same week that Birthday reached the top spot.

Both songs are from the recent album DreamCypher.

The Crüxshadows, despite worldwide popularity and a successful fifteen year career, have been denied access to much of the mainstream media’s attention based on their Gothic label. Still, the fanbase continues to grow, and the bands positive and inspirational lyrics have been discovered by an ever increasing audience that once believed that gothic music was supposed to be depressing, or hateful, or shock oriented. Not this band. Try deep, sincere, moving, introspective, inspirational, and insightful. Listen to the words...

Good songs to download on iTunes: Birthday, Sophia, Winterborn (this Sacrifice), foreverlast, Helen, Eye of the Storm, Ariadne, Dragonfly, Memorare, Return (coming home), Citadel, Marilyn My Bitterness, & Deception- too name but a few...

The band can be contacted at [email protected] for interviews. Please include phone contact info.

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Press clippings- Riding the Dark Wave... from ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINE, UK Dec 2006 edition.

Having taken criticism from both a mainstream that considers them too 'Goth' to be trendy and an underground concerned they don't tick all the 'goth' boxes, The Cruxshadows are now learning to ignore the labels, on the grounds that, whatever you call it, one huge record buying public can't be wrong.

November 2006 and Florida darkwave act The Cruxshadows are settling into another lengthy international tour, with another fresh line-up. The mood in the band seems upbeat, as frontman and ringmaster Rogue describes how recent addition, guitarist George Bikos, has proved himself to be the ideal successor to long standing six-stringer Stacey Campbell. “George is a better player overall” the singer reckons. “I think he has more enthusiasm for what he does. He just fir in with us in a way that made everything fall into place. We were caught a bit off guard when Stacey left but it really seems to be for the better for us and Stacey is now able to pursue her own project, which I think is what she really wanted.”

With a refreshed focus in the band, the Cruxshadows were able to knuckle down their own next project, forthcoming record 'Dreamcypher', which is set for a mid-January release. Despite this being his band's 5th full-lengther overall, frontman Rogue still confesses like a kid before Christmas with anticipation “I'm really excited about the album... I think it's very much a Cruxshadows disc. But it is also very unique, relative to our catalogue of music.” The core themes of the LP, which is at the pressing plant when we speak, are at least typical of the Cruxshadows ambitious lyrical fare. Quizzed about influences on this latest work Rogue responds “there are of course artists I truly admire and look look up to – but i find I am most inspired by heroism, self-sacrifice, true love, determination, humanity. That sort of thing. I tend to find more in stories, myth, literature etc... but you occasionally find it in music”.

The potential for pondering over interpretations in Rogue's puzzle-like lyrics, coupled with the sublime weaving together of Rachel McDonnell's neo-classical violin parts and ultra-modern synth and keyboard elements provided by Jen Jawidzik, when set out on paper makes the Cruxshadows a critic's dream. In practice though, Rogue explains that music hacks across board have rarely given positive reading as a barometer of his band's success. “Mainstream critics associated anything Gothic with crap”, he put forward bluntly. “And in turn the critics from within the scene saw us as being too pop, too positive, or too not what they wanted us to be. Fortunately the fans are really what matter and they've been very supportive from the beginning. After all, he adds, “if you are making music to please critics you're doing something wrong artistically”.

Rogue is right in his assertion that the Cruxshadows always have been, and likely always will be, a band of the people. For all the worldly themes, scholarly ambitions, and deep thought required by their records, the live show is notorious for involving and connecting with the audience on a most basic, human, and up close and personal level. Dancers Jessica Lackey and Sarah Poulos, who complete the line-up, provide a visual edge and energy at every gig while Rogue, equipped with a radio mic and boundless stamina, spends more time in the crowd and scaling venue fixtures and fittings than actually onstage. Their 'fan's band' status reflects in impressive sales figures in Germany, the United States, and increasingly France, Italy and Eastern Europe.

“The more the crowd is into it, the more energy we tend to give”, says Rogue. “And that leads to more energy from the crowd. It gets to a point where one hand feeds the other. Those are the best shows, regardless of size. But honestly, there's nothing like looking out at an audience that goes as far as the eyes can see”.

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During Cruxshadows' first uncertain jaunt into Eastern Europe the rapport between band and crown ignited instantly. “We were more accepted than we could believe”, recalls Rogue. “The fans in Eastern Europe are amazing. It is a world with so much passion, honesty and vision. It seems to me to be yet unspoiled by too much of the jaded Western commercialism. Everything is new and exciting as it seems”.

Meanwhile Rogue can report that back in the States the first single to be taken from the forthcoming album, 'Sophia', has already landed the band their 'first real billboard success'. “It's a good indicator things are moving in the right direction”, he must agree “And sometimes it can be exciting but we try not to get too wrapped up in the charts. Getting to number 6 on the US billboard singles and number 1 on the US billboard dance charts was kind of cool though”, comes an understated admission. “It means we're in the books so to speak”.

With a following that spans continents and genres, from mainstream dance to the underground alternative, Rogue is these days understandably nonplused about having not appeased the critics version of what his band should be about. “We are what we are”, he shrugs unapologetically. “The music shouldn't be defined by some arbitrary classification. I guess music historians will have determined what fits who... When all is said and done I guess that's the best time to tie us to a label of some sort. Till then, we are Cruxshadows.

Words: Allison B

DreamCypher Review- All Music Guide

by Jo-Ann Greene

In 1984, Depeche Mode set the music scene afire with their "Master & Servant" single, almost instantaneously transforming the group from teen-scream, synth-pop stars into serious artists. The band's flirtation with the industrial scene was exceedingly brief, but extraordinarily influential, providing a launching pad for such later legends as Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails, among many others. Depeche's Some Great Reward album's lusher sounds and its search for meaning equally resonated with the New Romantics, whose own love of decay and romance was spawned

CXS Press Packet 6 Cruxshadows straight out of the U.K.'s earlier proto-gothic movement. Suddenly the gap between Depeche and the likes of Duran Duran, Soft Cell, and Ultravox dramatically closed. Crüxshadows' Dreamcypher beautifully bridges the remaining gaps between the two genres. In fact, the album seems to pick up precisely where Reward left off, such a logical progression that it actually makes more sense than Depeche's own move towards the despair of Black Celebration. The perfect union of early industrial sounds and club-fired rhythms, wedded to darkly lavish New Romantic atmospheres, almost vulgarly rich infectious melodies, and lyrics that delve goth-like deep into the human psyche, Dreamcypher travels a road not taken, but one that has beckoned bands ever since the mid-'80s. Echoes of the past reverberate throughout the set, the shaded but still catchy synth-pop melodies so reminiscent of Depeche, the wafting atmospheres of Ultravox, the shrouded auras of the Mission, the disco-fied beats of the Pet Shop Boys, but Crüxshadows do give it their own twist, chiefly through the band's excellent use of strings. There's at least half-a-dozen tracks that are potential club hits within, including the driving "Sophia," the compulsive "Windbringer," the guitar flecked "Defender," the disco- fied "Elissa," the sweeping "Birthday," and the epic "Eye of the Storm." There again, one could easily add another four or five to this list, so strong is this set. The past as it never was, but always should have been, and now finally is.

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